The right-wing talk show host says the heat index is a manufactured way of measuring the heat.

HOT AIR: Rush Limbaugh has decided to take on the heat index, calling it a government conspiracy. (Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Rush Limbaugh must be running out of material. Now he's telling his listeners that the media is blowing the current heat wave out of proportion.

On his program this week, Limbaugh called out other pundits in the media — including the always level-headed Drudge Report — for overstating how hot it is. "Even Drudge. Drudge getting sucked in here. Gonna be 116 in Washington. No it's not. It's going to be like 100, maybe 99," said Limbaugh.

Of course, what the Drudge Report and many meteorologists have been referring to with the 116 figure is the heat index. The heat index tells people what it actually feels like, which in a swampy, steamy and humid place like Washington, D.C., is useful. On a personal level, the heat index tells me if I'm going to sweat through three or four shirts on a daily basis. But to Limbaugh the heat index is nothing more than a vast left-wing conspiracy.

"The heat index is manufactured by the government to tell you what it feels like when you add the humidity in there — 116. When’s the last time the heat index was reported as an actual temperature? It hasn’t been, but it looks like they’re trying to get away with doing that now," said the radio talk show host.

Limbaugh even managed to get in a cheap shot at Al Gore. Whatever statistic you believe, the temperature or the heat index, or the Schenkel Shirt Count (SSC), the air is hot around the country, and that doesn't factor in Limbaugh's contribution.